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Thursday, February 07, 2013

Lovecraft's influence on Maine artists

Photographer Eric Pomorski surveys his fellow artists' work.

It will come as no surprise to readers that once again I and other Portland, Maine, artists (as well as a few guests from away) have fallen under the spell of Lovecraft. The result is an epic artshow, Lovecraft: A Darker Key, which is showing at Sanctuary's gallery here in Portland from Feb 1, 2013, to May 1st, 2013 (or, Candelmas to Beltane).

The artists involved range from illustrators to sculptors to photographers to painters, each showing his or her own interpretation of the elements of Lovecraft's stories. To quote Nicholas Schroeder of the Portland Phoenix, "Viewers, particularly those who haven't read Lovecraft, might look at 'A Darker Key'... as a richly involved visual glossary of profoundly alien terms."

Participants include such horror luminaries as Eric Anderson of the Shoggoth Assembly (who recently worked on effects for the local projects Ragged Isle and Hanover House), Mortimer Glum (currently working on art for Escape from Jesus Island), Jason Thompson (artist of the recently published Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath), Tom Brown (artist of the recently published Hopeless, Maine), and Christian Matzke (director of Nyarlothotep and An Imperfect Solution: A Tale Of The Re-Animator).

The classic weird fiction writing of author H.P. Lovecraft forms the dark heart of this delectable array of eldritch art. Each artist was inspired by the dreamlike vistas created by Lovecraft's pen in the brief window between the years of 1917 and 1935. The world of his fiction was one of contrast between cosmic horror and eerie beauty. The title of this show references one of the stories in his Dream Cycle, "The Silver Key." Appropriately, this art show bookends the anniversary of his early death, March 15 (1937).

Come, and peer through the eyes of artists at the vision of a master writer!